Sunday, September 30, 2012

Many students still wonder about the importance of MUET. Its not meant to torture you. The preparation for MUET and doing well for it, will help ensure that you don't have to struggle with English when doing your Business degree, Finance degree, Law degree ect.

The preparation for MUET will help ensure that you have what it takes to join the working force; the ability to speak and write well in English.

There is
an urgent need for jobseekers to be armed with skills in English to work and
communicate effectively.

EVEN after the master of ceremony had brought the
question-and-answer session to a close, hands continued to wave frantically
across the room.

With questions and statements ranging from
intentional learning to early childhood education and from the level of English
proficiency in rural schools to the failure of university graduates to perform
in interviews, everyone wanted to weigh in on the topic at hand.

Entitled English Proficiency: Does the national
education system support the needs of the workplace?, the forum, held in
Penang on Monday, was part of the English for More Opportunities initiative by The
Star.

Education Ministry deputy director-general Datuk Dr
Khair Mohamad Yusof (Teacher Development Professionalism) started the ball
rolling with a startling revelation — that two-thirds of students and
two-thirds of teachers involved in a survey struggled with English proficiency.

“First, we benchmarked SPM English results with
that of the Cambridge English Language 1119 standards and found that although
students had good grades in SPM, two-thirds of them failed to meet the basics
of English proficiency (a credit of C6) in the 1119 paper,” Dr Khair said to
the 160-member strong crowd.

“In the second (finding), we found that teachers
did not fare well as two-thirds of those surveyed failed to reach “proficient”
levels of C2 and C1 in the Cambridge Placement Test,” he added.

“The ministry is not in a state of denial about the
problems we face. The aim of the system is to provide students with the basic
skills to communicate and although they know the language, the question now is
whether they can communicate confidently and master the language to an extent
that they can face the challenges of the globalised workplace,” Dr Khair said.

He added that the final Malaysia Education
Blueprint, scheduled to be sent to the Cabinet in December, will put a focus on
the country’s 70,000 English teachers.

That news was welcomed by the next speaker — the
National Union of the Teaching Profession (NUTP), Penang branch chairman Ng
Weng Tutt - who, however, cautioned that successful implementation was the key
in getting the right results.

“What we are more concerned about is the
implementation of our national education system.

“For example, the new Education Blueprint states an
intention to introduce English Literature in primary schools.

“We support that proposal but we need to have
enough trained English teachers who are well-versed in teaching literature,” Ng
said.

He said currently, some schools were already taking
non-English trained teachers to teach English in schools, which was not
something that should be repeated with English Literature.

“Teaching English Literature is not as easy as it
sounds.

“We do not want something that is implemented in a
slipshod manner.

“We want it to be very well planned so we can fully
reap the results of what the government intends to do,” Ng said, adding that
courses to upskill and upgrade the nation’s 450,000 teachers were sorely needed
to keep them up to date with the best practices.

Pulling the focus onto school leavers, Taylor’s
University deputy vice-chancellor Pradeep Nair gave an analogy of an
“unbalanced” bodybuilder when talking about undergraduate students.

“Just imagine a body builder with muscles in all
the wrong places, or not in all the right places. They may be very good at one
or two things, but are not perfect in some of the other areas.

“These are the people you wouldn’t want taking part
in competitions,” Pradeep said, to knowing nods from the audience.

Lacking skills

He said to make matters worse; students were
frequently ignorant that they lacked skills to succeed in the workplace.

“If there is a problem, it is that these young men
and women who leave secondary school actually don’t know that there is a
problem.

“This is because the system has conditioned them to
rate their degree of success by one set of rulers while the university and
workplace may have a different set of scales,” he said.

Quoting
the 2012 World Bank Malaysian Economic Monitor report, Pradeep said 46% of
Malaysian firms that participated in the survey cited poor English proficiency
as a key restraint to hiring.

“A total of 37% cited poor communication skills as
another restraint.

“The sad thing is good academic qualifications did
not even feature in the top 10 reasons for hiring,” Pradeep said.

He said language was a great enabler for students
to pick up discipline-specific knowledge, cognitive capabilities and soft
skills which were all needed by graduates looking for successful careers.

He added that students first needed to realise how
crucial language and communication in English were to the job market before
they embarked on equipping themselves for the job world.

“Getting graduates to master engineering or
accountancy may not be sufficient anymore and what is far more important is to
first get them to a space where they know what they don’t know rather than
remain in ignorance,” he said.

For Datin Noor Azimah Abdul Rahim, the Parent
Action Group for Education (PAGE) Malaysia chairman, giving children a strong
foothold in the subjects of Science and Mathematics was something she knew was
beneficial.

Advocating the group’s push for the teaching of
both subjects in English, Noor Azimah said that it was a myth that students
could not cope with the new system.

“The teaching of Science and Mathematics in English
was introduced in 2003 and we see that there has been an upturn in the graph
(of the percentage of passes in Science and Mathematics among UPSR, PMR and SPM
candidates) for the last seven years.

“These are good results and we ask, when have the
results ever dropped? They haven’t and we are outperforming the times when we
had these subjects taught in Malay,” she said.

She added that having English as a second language
in Malaysia was a plus point for students who would benefit from acquiring
scientific knowledge in its lingua franca of English.

“We should capitalise on our strengths, not
suppress them.

“What we are hoping for is that the government will
nurture schools that teach Science and Mathematics partly in English and let
the schools that teach these subjects 100% in English to continue doing so,”
she said.

Strong voices

In her welcoming speech, The Star’s deputy
group chief editor (II) Leanne Goh said people who felt strongly about English
usually had a lot to say and encouraged the audience by telling them to “Give
them (the speakers) all you got!”

During the question and answer session, the crowd
took her advice to heart with question after question raining down on the
speakers.

From undergraduate students to seasoned teachers
and industry leaders, all who put up their hands had specific points to raise
about the importance of English and the role of the national education system
in fostering it.

Umar Man, the chairman of the SM Seberang Prai
Parent-Teacher Association, lamented about the gap of English proficiency among
today’s students compared with those from the previous generations.

“We look at the ‘good old days’ and wonder where we
have gone wrong.

“As parents, you have to worry when you see your
children go through the whole school system but end up unemployed because they
cannot get through the interview stage,” he said, questioning the declining
standard of English among teachers.

This opinion was echoed by 72-year-old Lim Hock
Huan who said that many university graduates had not been as successful in
securing the right and relevant jobs for themselves.

Forum moderator Datuk Noor Rezan Bapoo Hashim, a
former Education Ministry deputy director-general and Khazanah National Bhd’s
current education advisor and consultant, came to the rescue of teachers by
saying that the declining proficiency of English could not be put solely on
their shoulders.

“I have been posed this question many times — why
are the quality of teachers not as good as the quality of teachers before?

“I always tell people that they have to be fair to
the teachers today.

“If you have passed through an English-medium
school, the English that you speak is different than the English that is spoken
by children today.

“And we cannot really blame the teachers because
they are products of the system,” Noor Rezan said.

She said language was learnt and developed through
usage and limited exposure to the language was not enough to make a person
proficient.

“However, there is one reminder I want to make to
all of us and myself — do not link the teaching of a language to race and
religion.

“Think of the teaching of English as a matter of
functionality and how useful that language is wherever we are,” she said.

Different perspectives

Two teachers also stood up to outline the
challenges they faced in teaching English to their students.

A 40-year-old secondary school teacher said the
standard of English in the classes she taught was of varying levels.

“I have one Form Four class where the English
proficiency is ‘very good’, another that is of medium standard and a final one
which I call the ‘Oh, my English!’ class.

“They mix up the basics like ‘is’ and ‘are’, ‘a’
and ‘an’ and ‘her’ and ‘she’. So, what I have done is to go back to basics with
them with nursery rhymes, songs, poems, story-telling and drama.

“There is no point in giving them essays as they
were not able to write them and it would just be a waste of time,” she said.

Another English language practitioner, Khor Sim Ee,
said the subject of English Literature concentrated too much on local texts
with the curriculum lacking a world view.

“When you only use Malaysian texts, it destroys the
global perspective of the subject.

“Also, abridged texts are used which causes the
language element to suffer as well,” said Khor, 56.

University undergraduates also had their say in the
50-minute question and answer session.

Mohd Zayani Zulkifli, 22, from Universiti Sains
Malaysia (USM) asked if the teaching of English could be brought forward to the
kindergarten stage to take advantage of the incredible learning capacity of
young children.

Farhana Abdul Fatah, 21, lamented about her
experience as an intern in the tourism industry.

“My boss has said to me that in this (tourism)
field, they don’t need very proficient English speakers so long as it is enough
to get by.

“What happens when we’re proficient in the language
but we are underutilised?” asked Farhana, who also hails from USM.

Pradeep replied that: “The statistics in all
industries in Malaysia are pointing to the reverse.

“What is being said now is that your academic
transcripts will get you through the door, but to get the job, employers want
to see what your views on life are, and what you think about the future of the
world.

“They want to see whether a person is reflexive and
whether he can articulate his ideas. In this context, language becomes so
important,” he added.

Businessman Tham Soon Seong suggested English be
used in the teaching of History and Geography to teach students the basics and
give them more versatility.

“People
entering the workforce now are still unable to write a good letter or
communicate with a customer in English.

“Globally, Malaysia’s top 20
trading partners are countries where the language used is English, and if you
are not proficient in the language, you lose out,” he said.

Friday, September 21, 2012

Received calls and text messages from my former students who took MUET in July. Lots of great news all around. Congrats on your Band 4 accomplishment! All the best in your studies in Uni.

Also, received calls and text messages from new students who need to re-take the MUET. They need Band 4 but obtained Band 2 or 3. Very important, don't despair. Try again.

MUET classes are running now. See you for class next Monday.

For those who called, more information below.

MUET TUITIONINTENSIVE COURSE FOR MUET October/November 2012
- Preparing for MUET NOVEMBER 2012?
- Need to score band 3, 4, 5 or 6 for application and entry into university?
- Need to improve your band score after your first or second attempt last year?

This is a short intensive course for candidates who need help in their MUET preparation.Notes and materials provided and prepared specifically for scoring in MUET.
Lessons are exam driven for scoring in MUET.Lessons will be in August to October 2012.
Lessons will be held in Cheras
Reasonable fees
MUET tutor with 10 years experience.

Please call Ms Tang at 014 639 6212 or visit http://muettuition.blogspot.com/ for more information.
(If you can't reach me when you call, its because i'm in class, please leave me a text and i'll call you back.)

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About Me

14 years experience teaching English for exams.
Also teach academic English for first and second year university students.
I conduct intensive IELTS and MUET courses, as well as IGCSE for students and university candidates from various public and private universities.
For more information on IELTS and MUET courses, as well as IGCSE, call me (Ms Tang) at 014 639 6212. If you are unable to reach me when you call, its because i'm in class, please leave me a text and i'll get back to you asap.
Many of the students i've taught over the years are now, pursuing their tertiary education in courses and universities of their choice. Many are already working and pursuing their careers as professionals.
These exams don't have to be difficult, MUET, IELTS and IGCSE can be made easy with some work, patience and proper support.
If you want to conduct MUET courses, workshops, seminars at your university or centre, please feel free to give me a call.
The purpose of this blog is to share information about MUET. Many students contact me with many questions about the test. Hopefully it provides a little insight on the test and that you might find it useful in your preparation.

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Copyright

The work on this blog, www.muettuition.blogspot.com belongsto Joline Tang. Please feel free to use the information on the blog for your study purposes. I've made it available to assist MUET candidates. However, if you want to use the information and work on this blog on another blog or print it out for use in class or reproduced in any other form, please link it back to this site and retain any credits, acknowledgements, and hyperlinks within it.